If mobile phone companies continue with the current trend in the ongoing 2G spectrum auctions, as witnessed in the first three rounds, where they have shied away from placing bids for many key circles, including the metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai, the move will derail the government's plans of imposing a one-time fee on existing airwaves held by telcos.

On Thursday, the Cabinet had endorsed the recent decision by an inter-ministerial panel to impose a one-time airwaves charge on GSM-based operators - this one-time fee was to be based on the market price to be established in the auctions that began today. A decision on a similar fee for CDMA firms was deferred as the auction for these airwaves has fallen through after the two bidders, Tata Teleservices and Videocon, pulled out.

This one-time fee was slated to bring in about to bring in a minimum of Rs 25,000 to the exchequer. But off this, the government could have realistically got only Rs 13,171 crore, the amount that will have to be shelled out by private players, as the Centre will bear the cost of this one-time fee for state-owned companies - BSNL and MTNL.

Lack of bidders in key circles will prevent the government from establishing the market price to calculate the one-time fee. Any attempts by the centre to reduce the base price in these regions and then go in for a second round of auctions will result in fresh round of legal challenges from companies that participated in the current sale process.

This puts in jeopardy the government's plans to getting additional revenues from this one-time charge this fiscal.